IOPS versus Throughput

Question

1. What is the key difference between IOPS and Throughput in large data storage?
2. Does file size have an effect on IOPS? Why?

Answer 1

This is the analogy I came up with when talking about Throughput and IOPS.

Think of it as :

1. You have 4 buckets (Disk blocks) of the same size that you want to fill or empty water.

2. You'll be using a jug to transfer the water into the buckets. Now your question will be :

• At a given time (per second), how many jugs of water can you pour(write) or withdraw (read)? This is IOPS

• At a given time (per second) what's the amount(bit, kb, mb, ect) of water the jug can transfer into/out of the bucket continuously? This is throughput.

Additionally, there is a delay in the process of you pouring and or withdrawing the water. This is Latency.

There's 3 things to consider when talking about IOPS and Throughput.

• Size (file size/ block size)
• Patterns (Random/Sequential)
• Mix (Read/Write) percentage